HENRY T. CAYOU, "A Builder of Good Faith and Friendship"

HENRY THOMAS CAYOU
Deer Harbor, Orcas Island,
San Juan Archipelago, WA.
From the archives of the
Saltwater People Historical Society©
Click image to enlarge.
 A gift from Cliff Thompson,
retired mariner of Deer Harbor, Orcas Island, WA.

The name Cayou, belonging to a long-time San Juan county resident, has been nominated to the Washington State Board of Geographical Names as a more deserving person to represent the name of the body of water between Orcas Island and Shaw Island, long on the charts as Harney Channel.
      Petitions have been signed and the application made with good words of the success in the life of Henry T. Cayou (ca. 1869-1959). Much emphasis has been made on his fishing career from the age of nine, reefnetting at Flat Point while learning from his uncle Pel Ell, and then his pioneering of trap fishing. He always remained an independent operator of his traps.
      But his life could be judged more noteworthy for his dedication to  serving his community. Mr. Cayou was a San Juan County commissioner for at least 27 years, a long-serving trustee of Orcas Power and Light Company since its founding, and an Orcas Island School board trustee for 33 years, as he stated on his business card. 
      Henry Cayou spoke to members of the Orcas Island Historical Society in 1953 and among other things he told of how he engaged in the island's first agricultural enterprise. The Cayou family grew strawberries and Henry recalled that when they ripened he loaded them into a dugout canoe and set out for Vancouver Island, B.C., about 12 miles north of Victoria to find a buyer. The berries were served on Victoria tables in honor of the Queen's birth anniversary.
      It has been noted recently that he had traveled the channel many times in his lifetime. Actually, it could be said he "survived" the channel in a Christmas Day storm of 1896. He and his wife, baby, and other family members were capsized in a gale off Point Hudson when sailing to Decatur Island for Christmas dinner. Cayou held his baby's head above the cold water until help reached them clinging to the overturned vessel. Lee Wakefield and George Fowler of pioneer Shaw Island families pulled hard on their oars and managed to get all the wet mariners safely back to the Orcas landing.
      The last paragraph is sourced from "Almost Fatal Accident," 
the Islander newspaper of January 1896.
Archived by Saltwater People Historical Society

❖        ❖        ❖

"Captain Henry T. Cayou [ca. 1869-1959] was born at Deer Harbor on Orcas Island, where he has built a beautiful waterfront home which is to be the sanctuary of his and Mrs. Cayou’s declining years.

      In the early days when Henry was a young man, he was successful in the fishing game (as he called it,) which eventually developed into an industry of no mean proportions. Being on the ground floor with the coming of the fish traps, Henry secured a pile-driver outfit and tugboats and went about the business of building fish traps for himself, and also for many others.

      He also was a wharf builder, contracting for many of the wharves in and around the San Juan Islands. There were individuals and a small group of home folks in the islands who could ill afford a wharf or boat landing and were forced to use rowboats to meet the mail and freight steamers. By seeing their need and supplying it, furnishing the materials and building them wharves for a nominal sum, then letting them pay for them if and whenever they could. Henry was a builder of good faith and friendship.
      Henry nearly lost his life in an explosion aboard his boat, the Standard, several years ago, which slowed him down for a few tides.
      

Cannery and trap tender, the STANDARD
In for repair after the explosion in Mar. 1911..
Click image to enlarge.
Digital image from J.R. Paterson.
Williamson Collection; Neg. # 839.

MARY C.
Steam tug built on Decatur Island. 
Oil painting donated to the
Saltwater People Historical Society
by retired mariner/historian, J. Robin Paterson.

FEARLESS
210192
80-ft L x 17.4-ft B x 8-ft D
Built by Wm. H.F. Reid, 1912,
Decatur Island, WA.
For Henry T. Cayou,
Source: Master Carpenter Certificate, on file.
from the National Archives, Seattle, WA.

Yacht BUFFALO
 Built Reed Shipyard, Decatur Island, WA.
Location here, Eastsound, Orcas Island, WA.
From the archives of the
Saltwater People Historical Society©

Trap and cannery tender
SALMONERO 
201957
54.4-ft x 11.3-ft x 4.3-ft D
Launched 1905.
One-time owner, Henry T. Cayou
Original photo from the archives 
of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

At one time he and the late Billy Reed [brothers-in-law] built the Decatur Shipyard and owned jointly the following boats: Osprey, Skiddoo, Standard, Helen T, Fearless, and the 78-ft steam tug Mary C, which passed into the hands of the American Tugboat Company and was operated by them for many years. Captain Cayou owned the Hillside and later purchased the Salmonero, better known as the Sammy, later selling her to the San Juan Fish Co. She is now doing duty at Bristol Bay, Alaska.

Henry has always been very active both in business and social life, always ready to help a neighbor, and that means anyone in the San Juan group of 172 islands. “They are all my good neighbors,” he has been heard to remark many times. In case of sickness, death, or pleasure he was always ready to go, and if it were not possible for him to go personally, he would send his boat to make the rush trip for the doctor, and for many years the nearest doctor was at Friday Harbor.

      He is an expert navigator and can hit the center of any channel in the islands in a dense fog—one of those pilots who can run up to a dock in such a heavy fog that you can’t see a thing. They tell the story of how one day in a regular pea-soup fog, “Cap” Cayou stopped his boat and shouted to the deckhand to make fast. The bewildered deckhand shouted back, “Yes, sir, but where’s the dock?” To which “Cap” replied, “Put out your hand there, me lad, and you’ll feel it.”
      He is also an expert on tides and always takes advantage of them. One day he was watching two of the crew on one of his boats, with a tow, bucking the tide and making no headway. He stood and watched them for a while and was heard to remark, “If those lads would only feel around a little they would find some water they could travel in.”
      A school director for 33 years and County commissioner for 26, Cayou is president of the Orcas Power & Light Co, a position he has held since its formation in 1937. With all his interests he has never neglected any of these and makes frequent trips to his home at Deer Harbor during the fishing season each summer and fall.
      For a number of years, he was outside manager for the Columbia River Packing Co., at Point Roberts, in charge of the construction and operation of their fish traps. At one time he owned an interest in the George and Barker Packing Co. of Point Roberts. As it is impossible for Henry to be satisfied away from the fish industry and his boats, he moved some of his equipment to the Columbia River about four years ago, where he put in some gear and is supplying the Columbia River Packing Company during the packing season.

A set of reefnet gear moved to this more
southern location for a brief visit  
on the Columbia River.
Click image to enlarge.
Original photo from the 
Saltwater People Historical Society©

He and Mrs. Cayou make their home at present in Columbia City, OR, where you will find him ever on the alert to help someone who is less fortunate than himself.”

Pacific Motorboat, September 1943.
From: Saltwater People Historical Society archives.
https://saltwaterpeoplehistoricalsociety.blogspot.com/2021/11/henry-t-cayou-builder-of-good-faith-and.html

WOODEN BOAT RENDEZVOUS COMING UP!

Boats are available for free viewing on the marina docks of Deer Harbor, San Juan Archipelago, WA. Not only viewing but there is the usual informal potluck on the dock on Monday c. 6:30 and a paddle/rowing race at noon on Tuesday 5 September 2017 and a dinner served from 5:30-8:30 on Tuesday, provided by Island Pie.
For more information please go to this link:  http://woodenboatsocietyofthesanjuans.org

This announcement kindly submitted by the D.H.W.B.S.

❖ THROUGH A SWARM OF ISLANDS ❖ 1929 with June Burn

SAN JUAN II 
on her rounds with passengers,
mail and freight 
in the San Juan Islands.
Courtesy of Charles Torgerson family.

"Breakfast time on the SAN JUAN! Homer, the combination deckhand, purser, mail-clerk, baggage rustler and cook, comes to call the skipper while the engineer takes the wheel. When the skipper returns, the engineer goes into the tiny galley and when the crew has finished I saunter back to find out what the chances are for a cup of coffee. I wash a cup for myself, fry myself a pancake from the leftover batter and have breakfast in jolly informality. There is jam for the cakes and the coffee is just right. Everything is just right!
      Fancy going into the galley of a big boat––even of the SOLDUC––and preparing one's own breakfast! Every time I travel on a small island-boat I teeter between delight at the friendly, informal, unbusinesslike atmosphere on it and fear that it won't last. If ever the islands become so populous that big, important, immaculate, impersonal boats fill their waters I shall join that throng of people who bewail the passing of the good old days. When I begin to sigh and whine that the golden island days are over and travel on the boats no longer any fun, you'll know I've grown old, too. For, of course, the golden days of every person is when he is most keenly aware of the romance and adventure and delights about him. 
      I think John Burroughs began at 20 to live with zest; he lived all his life long as if things were all right in his world. I know a woman who used to live in the San Juan Islands. She is 72, now. White her hair is and not very robust her body. But 'Cousin Polly' Butterworth enjoys every single day of her life nor has ever been heard to speak with a shade of criticism of the maligned younger generation. She loves codfish now as if it were a special thrilling adventure to catch and cook and eat one. Still enjoys the boats and the leisurely ways of the islands.
      She is gone now from the gray farmhouse like a seagull perched in its little bay, and lonely the farm looks without her and her white-headed fat little 'Fayther,' as she called her husband in quaint Lancashire dialect, both of them full of fun and vitality. We used to row over there two or three times a week, partly for the cheer of their friendship, partly for the delicious canned veal and fresh vegetables and homemade bread and butter we had there, for our homesteading days were lean days of real hunger. It isn't so nice to come back home and find great holes where friends used to fit so warmly!
      Down, and down, and down the passes, the world of islands flowing off toward the horizon all around. Nowhere else, surely, is there so magnificent a sea freckled with such beautiful verdant islands! Nowhere else in America. Where, then?
      Mr. Gamwell, reminiscing one day, said that in 'the good old days' of sailing boats they used to go all the way around Shaw Island without wind. The tide would take them half around and the backwash around the corners would carry them the rest of the way around, though one wonders what they wanted to go all the way around for, anyhow!
      There are very few deciduous trees in the islands. Here all is green. Great soft madronas in masses, their red bark glistening, their brittle limbs heavy with orange and tan berries. Firs six feet through and an occasional ancient cedar, tall and straight and beautiful. A world of alder and willow and on some of the islands a great many hoary old oaks with twisted moss-hung limbs.
      Such a swarm of islands as there are! On the chart, they look few enough with wide waters between. But when one is among them, they crowd in close, the channels 'scrunching'' up to give them room. Through Pole Pass between Crane and Orcas islands. Charlie Hammond, an old friend, lived on Crane in our homesteading days. He is gone now and his old crony, Mr. Crafts, gone too. Mr. Crafts lived on Orcas on his own little place that he sold before his death to Mr. Brehms. Now it is well groomed and fair. But I miss the old log house at whose fireplace I've sat and talked of 'far things and philosophies.' Over that fireplace the old fellow had nailed aluminum letters fashioning the phrase: 'Oh what fools these mortals be,' that of course placed him in the ranks of the aged. A cantankerous, lovable, learned old man was Mr. Crafts. We loved him well and mourn his passing. For he was the first friend we made in the islands.

Looking down on the once popular
Norton's Inn, Deer Harbor, San Juan Islands,
 the date is pre-1928.

This photo is dedicated to 4 generations
 of the saltyChet North family who
once played & worked on this
coast in summer sun and icy winter storms.
Original photo from the archive of S.P.H.S.©

     

        

        On up into Deer Harbor with Turtleback rising behind. Mrs. Norton's flock of cottages on the hill grows every season. How I'd love to stop and have dinner with her today! Hard-working, brave, and cheery Mrs. Norton, the leader and backbone of her tribe.
      Up the channel between Jones Island and Orcas to the steep walls of Waldron. George says that every man on the island comes to meet all the boats and that if one is missing they know he is sick. Then across the wide level acres to Prevost on Stewart Island. I cooked dinner of spuds, corn on the cob, canned beans, steak, and gravy. How good things taste from a high narrow shelf-like table in a tiny galley on a little boat, the marvelous fresh sea winds whetting the appetite even as you appease it––we are at Prevost––almost home!
      See you tomorrow. June."
Text from Puget Soundings by June Burn 1929.

❖ FOUR WINDS CAMPER'S SAIL TO EUROPE ❖ 1950

Chart page from the travelogue,
 The Time of My Life
written and illustrated by Cherie Sutton.
Cherie was one of the fortunate Four Winds Camp 
alumni to tour Europe with Ruth Brown.
 As early as 1928, Brown escorted a party 
of 8 girls on a 7-month tour abroad, 
after the camp had closed for the summer.
Their motto was  "Around the World Friendship." 
Scan courtesy of Louellen McCoy, from her own
private book, one of 100 printed for a fund-raiser for
 Four Winds-Westward Ho Camp, Orcas Island, WA.

15 February 1950

“Glorified vagabonds” is what London affectionately called five young Pacific Coast girls who have arrived here on a tour that has taken them through a dozen European countries.
      One of the purposes of the group was to see what happened to food and clothing parcels sent to needy Europeans from the Four Winds Camp for girls at Deer Harbor, Orcas Island, WA.
     “The glorified vagabonds” moved around as the spirit prompted––and in style. The girls and their three chaperones traveled in two automobiles roomy enough so eight could sleep in them, if necessary. It wasn’t necessary. All of the sleeping was done in hotels.
      Chaperone-in-chief is Miss Ruth A. Brown of Seattle, director, and owner of the Four Winds Camp. Other chaperones are Mrs. Charles Zook Sutton, of Piedmont, CA, and Mrs. Hamilton Roberts of Stockton, CA
      The girls are Eleanor Harris, 21 yrs, of Berkeley, CA; Jane Graham, 20, of Vancouver, BC; Michaela Moran, 20, of San Francisco, CA; Tomolla Lipps, 24, of Los Angeles, CA; and Margaret Cranston, of Boise, ID.
      Their tour, which began in France at Le Havre in September, took them through France, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, West Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy.
      In each city, they visited they looked up persons to whom they had sent parcels.
      “They thought we were Santa Claus,” Miss Lipps said.
      “In one place in Germany they thought we were Marshall Aid,” Miss Cranston added.
      “We were whistled at and oo-la-la-ed in all languages", Miss Brown said, “But no one was fresh.”
      The cars have covered 21,000 miles. The only trouble was a puncture caused by a nail.
      The girl’s program included intensive sightseeing, some study, and wide-eyed observance of the complicated European scene.
     Some of their impressions were:
     Germany is dreadfully smashed, but its Western regions, at least, are beginning to hum.
      European men are gallant, slick, some are handsome––but they don’t seem to be as dependable as the American boys.
      British food is "much better than we expected, and the people seem so robust.”
      English fashion––also, “better than we expected.”
Above text: Alvin Steinkopf,  AP Foreign Staff, published by The Seattle Times, 15 February 1950

Ruth A. Brown, (1894-1976)
Camp Director, Four Winds-Westward Ho Camp,
Deer Harbor, Orcas Island, WA.
Original photo dated 1935, 
from the archives of the S. P. H. S. 

Ruth Brown served as executive director of the Camp Fire Girls in Seattle from 1921 to 1926.
      In 1927 she organized the Four Winds Camp in Deer Harbor, Orcas Island, WA, which she owned and directed until she retired in 1966. In 1935 she organized Westward Ho for boys, which operated in connection with Four Winds.
     Both camps were given to the Four Winds Foundation in 1968 by Miss Brown, who served as honorary board chairman of the foundation and Mr. Edgar F. Kaiser as Chairman.  The beautiful camp, known for its sailing, kayaking, and canoeing education is the largest operating in the San Juan Islands. Situated on over 1,000 acres, there are riding trails for beginners and advanced. Four Winds Camp is still operating into the next century with creative, responsible staff. During camp sessions the technology world is put aside in order for the young people, 7 through 18 years of age, to enjoy each other and the artistic, comfortable surroundings. There are hiking trips to Mount Baker and schooner trips on the Sound. 
      The newspaper article above highlights the special opportunities Miss Brown provided, leading several young women on a cultural experience through Europe.

❖ SCHOONER RANGER ❖ of Milwaukee and Deer Harbor, ORCAS ISLAND

Schooner RANGER
212407
Drawing courtesy of B. L. Brown.
Click to enlarge.

Auxiliary Schooner (Yacht) RANGER 
O.N. 212407
Designed by Thomas D. Bowes and Charles D. Mower, 
Naval Architects of Philadelphia.
Built by Henry B. Burger, Jr. Manitowoc, WI, in 1914.
The owner, R. B. Brown of Milwaukee, WI, and Deer Harbor, WA.

Dimensions listed on the Tonnage Admeasurement papers filed with the Dept of Commerce & Labor, 

27 June 1914:

Gross tonnage: 48
Net tonnage: 44
Reg. Length: 67' 
Tonnage Length: 74.8'
L. O. A: 77.6'
Reg. Beam: 17.2'
Reg. Depth: 8.2' (centerboard)
Spoon Bow, Square Transom
HP: 50-HP Wolverine.       

There is some incorrect information on the web regarding this vessel, including entries on the Woodenboat Forum; the data listed above is newly archived information, thanks to the helpful staff from the National Archives, Chicago. 
      After good times sailing the Great Lakes area, The RANGER sailed from Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1939, with the owner and a crew of seven friends, through the Chicago drainage canal to meet the Illinois River, down the Mississippi River, across the Gulf of Mexico to Kingston, Jamaica, then to Cristobal, to head for a transit of the Panama Canal, up the rugged west coast, safely to her new anchorage in front of "Arcady", the home of the skipper in Deer Harbor, WA. A total of 8,500 miles.

A segment of RANGER's
course from the home state 
of Wisconsin to the Gulf.
Ten days were spent at a shipyard 
in the heat of New Orleans.
Map courtesy of Wikipedia.

     

RANGER had a three-week layover
 at Kingston, Jamaica.
Something about tasting the rum and 
welcoming aboard an engine mechanic.

      Those on board for the long passage were the owner/skipper "R. B." Brown, "Doc" Earl Cilly, Bill Steinike, Jake DeBoer, radioman, Mr. Curtis, Johnny Findorff, cabin boy, Eddy Price, cook, and seaman Lew Dodd of Orcas Island. The last two mentioned each wrote separate accounts of the trip.
      With some good fortune, Lew Dodd's descriptive article was published in Pacific Motor Boat, January 1940. His name will be familiar to some readers from and interested in San Juan County life. Lew and his wife were known for building and retiring to a small, delightful cabin on Yellow Island in c. 1947, another intriguing story. ("Their" island is now owned by the Nature Conservancy.) Lew's 9-page article is included on this site as a "Page" and can be located on the home page.
     
      
WW II:
RANGER was used by the US Coast Guard in the waters of Washington State during the war. Through operator error, the vessel was wrecked on the rocks of San Juan Island, meaning her keel was broken. She was stuffed with empty barrels to keep her afloat for a passage to a shipyard. The barrels thrashed around the interior to demolish the fine woodwork. It is not clear in what condition she was in when released to the next private party.

1944:
H. M. Fierrell buys RANGER from the original owner, R. B. Brown, now of Deer Harbor, WA.
  
1949, Summer:
Ruth Brown chartered RANGER with skipper/owner, H. M. Fierrell, for her programs at Westward Ho Camp, Orcas Island, to substitute for WESTWARD HO, off sailing the TransPac Race.

1949, Winter:

RANGER 
(212407) 

owned by H. M. Fierrell in 1949.
Preparing for an adventure trip 

to the South Pacific,
Location: Queen City Yacht Club, 

Seattle, WA. 
Original photo from the archives 

of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

"Within 2 weeks, H. M. Fierrell, a 40-year-old Navy veteran, plans to head his schooner-rigged RANGER for South Pacific waters. 
      Fierrell has been interviewing crew for an expense-sharing cruise. "You have to be sure to get the right sort of men for a cruise like this," he declared.
      So far, he has lined up four men; he said he could take six more crew members. He figured it would cost each man about $500 for the six-month cruise.
      Fierrell is living aboard the RANGER at the Queen City Yacht Club until he sails for the South Pacific. He plans to return in six months to spend the summer running charter cruises in Puget Sound as he did last summer." 
This text in quotes, from The Seattle Times, 6 December 1949.

1952:
From a Seattle Times report of 14 May 1952, we learn that skipper/owner, H. M. Fierrell, and his wife were rescued at sea with 8 others from their schooner, ELOISE, c. 22 miles south of the Golden Gate, CA,  bound for an adventure trip to the South Seas. The USCG EWING reportedly towed the distressed, 1915-built schooner to San Francisco. The article states that Fierrell did not make it to the South Pacific in his previous schooner, RANGER.

2013:
We hear from Panama correspondents that RANGER is being restored in hopes she will be sailing for her centennial birthday in 2014.

❖ NORTH'S NORTH STAR ❖

NORTH STAR, Deer Harbor, Orcas Island.
Built 1930, by boatbuilder Chet North,
who sailed her into this port and never left.
Only known photo, saved by his Deer Harbor neighbors. 

"In 1911 Thomas Fleming Day, editor of Rudder magazine, sailed the 25-ft yawl SEA BIRD from the US to Italy,  single-handed. 

L-R: Frederick B. Thurber, T. R. Goodwin, Thomas F. Day
in 1911
Aboard SEA BIRD before their trip to Italy.
Library of Congress Photo (LC-B2-2207-9)

      A near copy of the boat plans appearing in the magazine, caught the eye of a multitude of people, one of them being Chet North, then living in Portland, OR. 
     In 1930 he completed a 22-ft copy of the vessel, with the addition of a 1928 Chevrolet engine, for more dependable arrivals.
     The boat was trucked to Olympia, WA for an October launching, along with one large police dog, the two senior Norths, and a new wife. Chet had just married Averil; on Halloween night they all set off for Canada, heading into a freshening northeaster. The first night was spent on McNeil Island.
      In December while returning from BC, they stopped for an overnight in Deer Harbor and never left.
      Only one picture was ever taken of the boat and that was also the only time that all sails were up; the engine having proved too handy. This photograph was found among the Pearmain family's collection of 'unknowns'.
The remains of the boat were, and perhaps are still, in the blackberry bushes on the Coffelt property on Lopez Island." 
Text by mariner/historian L. W. 'Corkey' North, son of boatbuilder Chet North, 2006.

This image from The Rudder, October 1901.
The magazine founder, editor, and boat designer was
Thomas Fleming Day, as mentioned by the author of this log post.
There is a detailed article about TFD and his work in
Wood Boat magazine No.43, Nov./Dec. 1981.

❖ INTERNATIONAL FREE TRADE ❖ by Skip Bold

When I was in my teens, in the late 1950s to early 1960s, I spent a fair amount of time in Deer Harbor. Deer Harbor and the closest grocery store, post office, shower, laundry, gas for my boat, and in my late teens, girls, and the Deer Harbor Dance Hall. What a hoot that place was! Two of the more colorful locals I recall were Sherman Thompson who had the saw mill at the lagoon, and 'Mississip' who had a  work boat and who specialised in such water front activities as log salvage.
      The story I am about to relate likely took place in the later fall of 1958.

Drawing by author.

      Friday.     
      That weekend dad and I took the KLICKITAT to Shaw late that night.
      Saturday. 
      The next morning I was amazed to discover that half the cove, in which the Neck Point float resides, was filled with logs. That is to say that there was a large, fresh, log boom moored to the trees along the rocky western shore of the cove. I can't remember how many sections the boom had, but it was all of 200-ft long. I do remember the whole cove being fragrant with the scent of fresh cut timber. There were no boats nor anyone around to explain the boom's presence.
      Sunday.    
      The net morning dawned bright & sunny with a light NW breeze.

Tug drawing by author.

 Soon after daylight, a tug approached rapidly from Deer Harbor. The tug identity remains a mystery.¹ In a life time of messing with boats I can remember the names and sheer lines of nearly every vessel that held any meaning for me. The name of this tug, however, has always drawn a blank. I suspect now, 52-years later, that the name and port of hail had been painted out.
      The tug roared right up to the boom, made up alongside, set up a bridal and towline, sent a couple of guys ashore to cast off from the trees, and got underway with the tow, for Deer Harbor. I don't think the tug was in the cove here for more than ten minutes. It was a very focused and rapid retrieval.
      Later that spring I learned more about the mysterious log boom when I related my story to Jack Tusler on Coon Island. He laughed and said 'Well, that would have been 'Mississip & Sherman', and then proceeded with the local scuttlebutt--
      It seems a tug in BC waters had gotten in trouble and had to abandon her tow.²
      The Deer Harbor boys heard of the drifting tow on the Marine radio³, and thought this might be a fine entrepreneurial opportunity.
      They got someone with a tug involved and went up to BC at night, found the log boom and brought it back across the line to the San Juans. They had ditched the boom at Neck Point while they figured the next move.
      I don't know where the tow went from here, but I did hear that various authorities took a very dim view of the Deer Harbor boys' experiment in International Free Trade. I don't believe anyone was incarcerated, but it is likely that substantial fines were levied.
      I never saw that mystery tug again.

      ¹ Mystery Tug: Small for a top house tug, 70-ft LOA or less. Two old style masts w/boom. Boat deck too small for standard lifeboat on davits. Fairly flat sheer w/low free board. Modern high speed diesel, surely not the original machine.
      ² Abandoning a tow. Dirty weather had something to do with this because the logs had recently lost a lot of bark. Possibly fuel got stirred up in dirty tanks and caused injector problems. Another possibility would be stuffing box or sea chest problems, necessitating a convenient beach, without delay.
      ³ Marine Radio. In those days, Victoria or Vancouver Coast Guard (BC) would give scheduled notice to mariners broadcast on the radio. Deadheads, missing buoys, drifting tows, and other unexpected navigational hazards would be described with reported locations, thus aiding our friends discovery process.
Above submitted by 
Skip Bold, Wasp Passage, San Juan Archipelago.
2013.

❖ The FOREST PRIDE, Barkentine and Barge

FOREST PRIDE

Three craft of this type came from the yards of
The Grays Harbor Motorship Corp.,
one of the wood shipbuilding plants 

of World War I.
They were FOREST FRIEND, FOREST PRIDE, 
and FOREST DREAM, built for the Forest Line. 

The G.H.M.C. was headed by A. Schubach,
who, with associates, owned the Line.

Click image to enlarge.
The house flag is flying in this original photo  

from the archives of the 

Saltwater People Historical Society©

Below text by 

Roy Pearmain,
descendant of an early Deer Harbor family.

My father, Robert Pearmain, was eight years old in 1926. Although 1926 was the year television was invented and many new technologies were being developed, the last vestiges of a dying era were still common in Puget Sound.  Sailing ships were still an important part of the economy. Bobby woke up one morning to find a huge lumber ship lying aground in front of the family home at the head of Deer Harbor Bay on Orcas Island.
      The tall ship had been under tow to sea when the tug boat developed mechanical difficulties. Large sailing vessels bound for distant ports were normally towed through the San Juans until they were safely past the treacherous rocks and tide rips that abound and could snare the unwary sailor. The tug left the ship anchored in the shelter of Deer Harbor and motored to Anacortes for repairs. During the night a nasty SE wind blew the ship aground at the head of the harbor where a small bluff drops off sharply into the water where it deepens quickly. The tide was out that morning and lines had been attached to the masts and made fast to an old twisted tree on shore to prevent the ship from capsizing. The tree was probably a Pencil Cedar and it may still be there.

Detail from the NOAA Chart #C&GS 6379
Dated 1972;
out of date for navigation.

      At the bottom of Deer Harbor, if it has not been salvaged, is still a section of chain and the ship's anchor. I was an avid skin diver in the late 1950s and spent a few minutes looking for it without success. My father and grandfather encouraged me to find it, but at that time I was more interested in the sea creatures in the rocks along the bluff. I was 19 years old, studying Biology, and considered myself a scientist, not a historian. In addition, I was free-diving without air tanks and the bottom was out of my comfort range.
      Everyone was excited and there was considerable activity but Bob was young and not allowed to go near the ship where the men were struggling to save the vessel. The local people were hoping that the ship and its cargo of old-growth fir lumber would remain stuck on the rocks and break up in winter storms to be salvaged by the neighbors. Unfortunately, for the would-be lumber scavengers, the ship was towed from the rocks on the next high tide with the help of at least one tugboat, to resume its voyage to Australia, after undergoing repairs in Port Angeles. Sometime later it was reported that she was lost with all hands in a storm and never made it to Australia.
      Bob, at age eight, did not know the name of the ship and when, in later years, he talked to other islanders, no one recalled the incident. It was not until he was in his 60s and living in Mount Vernon that he learned the details of the saga from an old tugboat skipper named Ernest Guchee who remembered the incident.
      The ship was a five-masted barkentine named the FOREST PRIDE. Although she had been severely disabled by a fierce storm and was feared lost, she finally limped into port in Australia with 1,550,000 bf of lumber.
      The FOREST PRIDE was built in Aberdeen, WA, in 1919, by Grays Harbor Motorship.  She was 242' long and one of four ships built with the Forest name. Two of them, the FOREST DREAM and the FOREST FRIEND, were also barkentines and the fourth, the FOREST KING was a steamer. The barkentine rig is square-rigged on the foremast and fore-and-aft rigged on the main, mizzen, jigger, and spanker. By all accounts, she was a beautiful ship and a veritable cloud of canvas when all of her sails were flying, which included, “...the tiny Royal which crowns this tower with a queenly grace.”1
      Earnest Guchee recalls in the book, Tugboat Captain, by Helen Leber, “One day, while I was skipper of the DOUGLAS, Lindley Davis told me to go out to Cape Flattery to watch for the FOREST PRIDE or FOREST FRIEND, I forget which one. They were coming from Australia, five-masted barkentine schooners, that had left about the same time, headed for Washington State to take on lumber. Well, I came across one of them out past Flattery and asked him if he wanted me to put my towline on him. Well, he tried to dicker with me about the price, and I told him I couldn’t change the price; I didn’t even know what it was. Then he asked me if the other FOREST ship had come in yet; I said, ‘Yes, I towed him in two weeks ago.’ ‘Put the god-damned towline on, then!’ 'That ended that real quick!”
      With the era of cargo sailing ships fading fast, Grays Harbor Motorship had started using the barkentines as barges to be towed by their sister ship, the FOREST KING, a steam schooner. Although the barkentine rig was still available and used occasionally, the company often found it more expedient to use the hull as a barge.
      In about 1933 she was purchased by the Curtis Brothers of Seattle to serve as a salvage barge. They used her in the recovery of the long-sunken steamship, ISLANDER.

Salvage operation 1934,
Stephens Passage, AK.

Published by the Seattle Times, 8 Dec. 1963.
From the archives of the S.P.H.S.

     
      The ISLANDER had sunk in 300 feet of water in Stephens Passage, AK [near Juneau] in 1901. Many of the passengers were prospectors who reportedly had stashed gold in the purser’s office 2. A passenger named H. Hart was believed to have $40, 000 in gold in a suitcase. He lugged it to the rail and jumped for a boat but came up short and landed in the drink; the weight (c. 130 pounds) of the gold dragged him down. The average price of gold in 1901 was $18.98 per ounce, making his satchel worth $3,633,679.00 in today’s (2012) prices of $1,725.70 per ounce. It’s my guess he turned his treasure over to Davy Jones and came up for air. In 1901, 300 feet was far too deep to consider recovery, but by 1934, the technology existed to salvage her and search for the gold.

   

Wreckage of the ISLANDER
Salvage attempt 4 Sept. 1934
Original photo from the archives of S.P.H.S.©

      The FOREST PRIDE, now a salvage barge with another barge (the GRIFFSON) were positioned on each side of the ISLANDER and cables were passed between them and under the sunken vessel to secure her between them. By utilizing the impressive tide cycles of Alaska, the ISLANDER was moved tide-by-tide into the shallow water of Green Cove.
       In addition to utilizing the vertical tide change, the GRIFFSON was equipped with 40 winches to help with the project3. Small amounts of gold were recovered but there was no mother lode. Unfortunately, the bow had broken off in the move and that may have been where the gold was located. 

Salvaged September 1934
Original photo from the archives of
the Saltwater People Historical Society©

The engine room telegraph 

of the ISLANDER,

Rusted solid but still intact 

from the 1901 wreck.
Photo date 1934.
Original from the archives of the S.P.H.S. ©

S.S. ISLANDER on the beach
at Green's Cove, AK.
Photo by Ordway"
For perspective, note the man on deck.
From the Clinton Betz Collection,
Saltwater People Historical Society ©

      In 1938 The FOREST PRIDE was sold to Gibson Brothers Ltd., British Columbia loggers, who operated her as a log barge 4; this is the last record that I could find. Perhaps she ended her days in a logging operation, an ignominious retirement for such a beautiful ship.

1 Voyage of the FOREST DREAM, Captain Niels Peter Thomsen
2 Friendsofadmiralty.org
3 Personality Ships of British Columbia, Ruth Greene
4 Maritime Events of 1938, Gordon Newell

A personal chronicle of one of
the last commercial sailing ships 
to depart from the PNW
on a prolonged voyage to the
Far East, via Cape Horn.
A time period of 1925.
Published by the author 
 in 1997.